The second week of the LPGA Tour’s Asian Swing faced a blow with Nelly Korda’s exit. The world no. 1 announced that she sustained a ‘minor neck injury’ and hence withdrew from two Asian events in South Korea and Malaysia. Nevertheless, the BMW Ladies Championship, LPGA’s lone South Korean stop, lacks no star power as former champion and South Korea-born Lydia Ko makes a grand return. 

Ko, already a three-time winner this year, is looking to extend his red-hot form in Seoul. The Kiwi International has not finished outside the top ten in her last four tournaments, netting two back-to-back victories at the AIG Women’s Open and the Kroger Queen City Championship. 

This will be her third straight appearance in South Korea. Last year, the 27-year-old had to tee off in a sponsor’s exemption to defend her title. She was winless the entire year, netting a lone top-ten in 2023. This year, however, is markedly different. In a field comprising Brooke Henderson, Hannah Green, Minjee Lee, Rose Zhang, Haeran Ryu, and a host of LPGA’s bigwigs, Ko is still the bettor’s favorite. 

She, of course, will have history by her side. In 2022, the LPGA Hall of Famer netted her first victory in South Korea. Ko shot 7-under to edge past Andrea Lee. It was more special because that came right before her wedding in December. The South Korean tournament, though, always had a very special place in her heart, as her past comments evince.

Lydia Ko’s special South Korea connection 

Lydia Ko was born in South Korea but moved out of the country with her parents to New Zealand when she was four. But she never hid the fact that despite spending so little time in the Asian nation, her heart still beats for South Korea. After winning the 2022 iteration of the event, Ko said, “Although I play under the New Zealand flag, I was born in Korea. I’m proud of my Korean heritage. I also speak Korean. I guess I always hoped for — I didn’t know if the day would come, but I would always hoped to win in Korea at least once, whether it was LPGA event or a KLPGA event. So I guess that yearning was there.”

Ko is also married to Chung Jun, the son of Korean car manufacturing giant Hyundai’s CEO, Ted Chung. Interestingly, at the Paris Olympics, Lydia Ko specifically requested South Korean food. At her father-in-law’s request, the restaurant that prepared food for the Korean Archery Team prepared meals for Lydia Ko as well. “Every day, we had to deliver the lunch boxes to Olympic officials near the venue, who then passed them on to Lydia in a complex operation,” Cheung later revealed in a social media post. 

The world no. 3 was also in the KLPGA’s Hana Financial Group Championship last month. She tied for 10th. Seen from that light, there is little surprise that Lydia Ko is teeing off at the BMW Ladies Championship in Seoul once again. Ko will be one of the four major winners on the field. The Golf Channel will broadcast the $2M purse event on this side of the Pond.